McLing

2015–2016 INSTITUTE

The Investigation of Linguistic Meaning: In the Armchair, in the Field, and in the Lab

• July 20–31, 2015
  Berlin, Germany, organized by the Wissenschaftskolleg and ZAS
• July 18–29, 2016
  Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA, organized by the National Humanities Center

CONVENERS AND GUEST LECTURERS

• Angelika Kratzer, Professor of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
• Manfred Krifka, Professor of General Linguistics at Humboldt Universität Berlin and
  Director of the Zentrum für Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin (ZAS)
• Emmanuel Chemla (ENS and Institut Jean Nicod, Paris); Lisa Matthewson (University of British Columbia); Jesse Snedeker (Harvard University); Malte Zimmermann (Universität Potsdam).

THE PROGRAM

The SIAS Summer Institutes are two-year research programs for young researchers and treat interdisciplinary topics. The goal of the Institutes is to sponsor joint interdisciplinary work by European and American researchers at an early stage of their career, thus fostering research networks and common activities. The idea is that cohort formation will, in the long run, contribute to close ties between research activities in Europe and the U.S. while simultaneously supporting the development of new fields of research.

Every Summer Institute consists of two 10– to 14–day workshops held in consecutive years, alternating between Europe and the United States. A team of one European and one American researcher heads the Summer Institute, in which these two Conveners and 20 Fellows — generally 10 Europeans and 10 Americans — as well as two to four outside specialists take part. Doctoral candidates near completion of their dissertation and post-docs may apply. Post-docs’ doctorates should have been completed no more than five years earlier, and their research work should have addressed one of the topics proposed for the institute. Participants receive a small stipend; travel and lodging costs are covered by the program. Accepting the fellowship commits the researcher to taking part in both workshops.

The SIAS Summer Institutes are sponsored by the SIAS (Some Institutes for Advanced Study), an association of eight institutes for advanced study. Their Directors constitute the Summer Institutes’ Steering Committee, whose tasks include determining the seminar topics and commissioning European and American researchers to organize and lead them. The Steering Committee’s work is supported by a large network of outstanding researchers (Fellows and former Fellows of member institutions), as well as other international contacts.

The Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation jointly fund the SIAS Summer Institutes, whose organization in Europe is the task of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and in the U.S. of the National Humanities Center.